Liberal Democrats back sustainable jobs

The proposals, which will be voted on by members at the conference in Brighton, are designed to boost green growth and jobs, support small businesses, open up access to finance, expand apprenticeships and unlock innovation. The proposals include:

Expanding the Green Investment Bank's scale and remit and relaxing restrictions on its borrowing

Creating Small Business Zones and New Enterprise Hubs

Facilitating the emergence and growth of new lenders, in particular by restructuring parts of RBS into local and community banks

Expanding apprenticeships on public infrastructure projects

Introducing a 'supply chain buddying' programme, whereby large companies already engaged in export undertake to support SMEs in their supply chain to find new overseas customers